Two principal types of sport apparatus for use in such in such training are currently known, namely: punch bags and punch balls.
Punch bags are made in various sizes, but they are generally big enough to perform most of the above-mentioned sporting exercises. Such bags are suspended at the end of a rope or chain and they can be made with varying degrees of hardness depending on the stuffing used. They are more particularly intended for working on the force with which punches are delivered and for pure technique. However, because of their relatively large size and weight, they are incapable of moving rapidly and thus do not exercise the reflexes, nor speed and accuracy in attacking and dodging.
Punch balls are constituted by generally football-sized balls which are intended to be punched with the fists only and which are connected to at least one dynamic member which is generally mounted on a stand.
Punch balls are apparatuses created for training in English-style boxing and for the training techniques specific to this art. However they have two main drawbacks:
they limit the movements of the user to well determined levels because of the small size of the target which is roughly the size of an opponent's head, and which is usually placed at face level; and
they cannot be used with any kind of realistic training for various combat sports in which the technique is based mainly on a range of blows running between the abdomen and the head of the opponent.
One of the aims of the present invention is to provide a new training apparatus which, while being related to punch bags, nonetheless possesses its own dynamic characteristics suitable for improving reflexes, and the speed and accuracy of the user's blows.